Wind. It can be a golfer’s best friend when you catch a helpful breeze—or your worst enemy when gusts knock shots offline.

For years, many of us have resorted to tossing the old tuft of grass skyward, peering at treetops in the distance, or relying on that phone app that’s just accurate enough to tell us last Tuesday’s weather from five miles away.

But now, there’s a new kid on the tee box: WindIQ, a technology so hyperlocal that it measures real-time wind speed, direction, and even the precise hole location—right on the green.

Founded in 2023 by entrepreneur and passionate golfer Ben Holbrook, WindIQ first came about because he was tired of battling West Coast gales without reliable wind data.

As Holbrook puts it, “We have yardages for bunkers and everything else—but when it comes to wind, we rely on gut feeling. Wind is the invisible hazard.”

Enter Tagmarshal, the golf cart GPS and on-course optimisation leader, who quickly saw the brilliance in WindIQ’s real-time wind intel.

WindIQ seamlessly adds new layers of wind data to the Tagmarshal platform’s tried-and-true analytics, broadening the horizon of tools that help operators optimize pace of play and enhance the player experience.

“Our vision and WindIQ’s are in perfect sync,” says Tagmarshal CEO Bodo Sieber. “We aim to deliver next-level technology that improves the golfing experience.

WindIQ does just that, giving golfers the wind information they need to make more confident shot decisions.”

Rather than relying on phone signals or distant weather stations, WindIQ uses ultrasonic transducers that capture wind speed and direction on the green every second. It’s compact, screws into the top of each pin, and even boasts multi-band GPS to pinpoint daily hole locations.

No cords, no cables, no fumbling with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. It’s rugged, solar-powered, and as close to “set it and forget it” as you can get in golf tech.

That unassuming little device opens up a world of useful intel:

• Wind Speed & Direction displayed on Tagmarshal Golf’s Caddie app or 2Way screen devices, as well as select on-course screens.
• Real-time recommendations that factor in wind impact on distance, club selection, shot trajectory, and aim.
• Daily Hole Locations fed right into the Tagmarshal system, saving staff countless hours.
• Pin In/Out Tracking for pacing stats that make sense—helping keep groups moving without the guesswork.

No more second-guessing how that pesky crosswind might push your ball into the next fairway.

By leveraging the Tagmarshal golf cart GPS platform’s analytics, WindIQ translates wind data into actionable suggestions: “The pin is 157 yards out with an 11-mph wind in your face—maybe grab the extra club.” Think slope rating for wind.

Beyond the obvious joy of hitting more greens and fairways, WindIQ cranks out real-time wind info that can guide course operators to fine-tune tee times, speed up pace of play, and optimise labour.

With the device automatically feeding pin locations into the Tagmarshal Golf ecosystem, staff and superintendents can spend more time improving the course (or sneaking in extra range practice) instead of fussing with hole data.

WindIQ and founder Ben Holbrook will be on full display at the 2025 PGA Show in Orlando, alongside Tagmarshal’s latest on-course optimisation solutions.

Visitors can drop by Tagmarshal’s Booth 3123 for a firsthand look at how the partnership is blowing fresh air through the golf tech landscape.

For those who can’t make it to Orlando, check out WindIQ or schedule a call with Tagmarshal via their contact form.

To learn more—or to simply make wind your new secret weapon—visit their website and see how WindIQ and Tagmarshal Golf are reinventing the way we play.

After all, a well-informed golfer is a dangerous golfer. And now, so is the wind.

Read the full article: LIV Golf Weekly

Revolutionary new technology provides golfers with more accurate measurements of wind speed and effects

Kennesaw, Ga. (Jan. 15, 2025). WindIQ—an industry-first technology that measures hyperlocal, real-time wind speed, direction, and precise hole location—has been acquired by golf’s leading on-course optimization platform, Tagmarshal.

WindIQ was founded in 2023 by Ben Holbrook, an experienced tech entrepreneur, investor, and avid golfer who wanted to improve his game but was regularly hampered by strong West Coast winds. Holbrook identified a need in the golf market for a technology that measures wind with more accuracy than current apps, which often show outdated wind conditions miles from the course being played.

“I always grappled with how golfers have so much information at hand about the distance to the bunkers and other visible hazards but rely on gut feel when it comes to wind,” said Holbrook. “Wind is a golfer’s invisible hazard. WindIQ finally gives golfers the wind information they need to make better shot decisions.”

WindIQ’s ability to optimize the player experience was clear to the Tagmarshal team, who recognized the potential for this powerful technology to complement the Tagmarshal platform and its golf cart GPS systems. WindIQ will add wind data to the data-driven insights Tagmarshal provides operators, broadening the scope for optimization and ultimately adding more value to new and existing partners.

Bodo Sieber, Tagmarshal CEO, said, “We are continually looking at innovative ways to improve the player experience using technology. WindIQ’s vision aligns closely with Tagmarshal’s and we are delighted to bring Ben’s expertise aboard to help us bring golf into the tech-enabled future.”

WindIQ uses ultrasonic transducers to measure wind speed and direction on the green once per second, as well as multi-band GPS for precise daily hole locations. The small, unassuming device screws on top of each pin with no cellular, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi required. The device is solar-powered, rugged, and waterproof, so operators can simply set it and forget it for the season.

This simplicity of the setup belies the massive on-course impact of this technology. Gone are the days of wondering “What is the wind doing?” while tossing grass into the air or checking a distant flag and trees. Golfers can now see real-time wind speed and direction to plan shots displayed on Tagmarshal’s Caddie app or 2Way screen devices, as well as available screens for tee boxes and yardage markers.

The technology also provides real-time recommendations that take into consideration how wind impacts distance, club selection, shot trajectory, and target. After socializing the invention, Holbrook was asked, “What do I do with this brand-new wind data?” His answer: “Imagine, just like slope for distance, we pioneer slope for wind. Now, via the Tagmarshal platform, we can articulate: ‘The pin is 157 yards with an 11-mph hurting wind; consider more club with a lower trajectory.’”

WindIQ also has a huge impact on on-course operations, as daily hole locations are automatically fed into Tagmarshal’s system, saving valuable labor hours for maximum operational efficiency, as well as utilizing wind and hole intelligence to improve pace of play. WindIQ includes real-time pin in/out technology that tracks when groups start and finish holes. The WindIQ data is integrated into the Tagmarshal ecosystem, increasing the data available for optimization strategies and pace of play management.

WindIQ’s revolutionary technology and founder Ben Holbrook will be at the 2025 PGA Show in Orlando, along with Tagmarshal’s new optimization feature set and best-of-breed devices, at Tagmarshal’s Booth 3123.

Forward-thinking operators not attending the show can learn more about WindIQ or schedule a call with Tagmarshal using this contact form.

Read the full article here: The First Call

Three-Year Extension Includes Executive Partner Status

Charleston, S.C.  – The National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA), the trade association dedicated exclusively to golf course ownership and operations, is pleased to announce that Tagmarshal, the expert in data-driven on-course optimization, has expanded its relationship with the association to become an NGCOA Executive Partner with a new three-year deal.

As part of this enhanced relationship, Tagmarshal will become the named sponsor of the Golf Business LIVE with Michael WIlliams broadcast, and share its comparative golf cart GPS data, analysis and insights with the golf course industry within the NGCOA online Tech Center’s Tech Marketplace. The company will also be recognized as a three-year member of the NGCOA Champions Circle.

Tagmarshal will also continue its NGCOA Smart Buy Marketplace purchasing program benefit, offering members a complimentary on-site optimization strategy consultation (a $1,000 value.) The company will also remain an NGCOA multi-year sponsor of the association’s events, including the annual Golf Business Conference, annual Multi-Course & Resort Operators Retreat, and bi-annual Golf Business TechCon (this year being held in October.)

“NGCOA is excited to welcome Tagmarshal as our newest Executive Partner,” said NGCOA CEO Jay Karen. “This is a company that has truly shown up in this industry and demonstrated leadership in technology and value. We are grateful to its entire team for their friendship and investment in the important work we do at NGCOA.”

Tagmarshal helps courses optimize operations by providing full course oversight, including player activity and real-time reporting for proactive management of field flow and efficient on-course operations. Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS system gives owners and operators real-time information about where players are on the course and how long they are taking to complete each hole; this technology enables staff to preemptively manage the pace of play in real-time, understand course traffic for cart tracking and grounds maintenance, and improve the player experience — which generates savings and additional golf course revenue.

Bodo Sieber, Tagmarshal CEO and Co-Founder, said “We’re excited to extend our multi-year partnership with the NGCOA, working with their exceptional team to help forward-thinking owners and management teams harness the full power of data and technology to improve and grow the game of golf, leading to successful outcomes for their operations. We couldn’t ask for a better partner than the NGCOA, who shares this vision with us.”

Read the full article here: The Golf Wire

About The NGCOA

The NGCOA is the leading authority on the business of golf course ownership and management. The association represents and promotes the interests of golf courses as the principal businesses and economic assets of the game of golf.

The not-for-profit organization is the only trade association dedicated exclusively to golf course owners and operators. Through advocacy, education and information resources, purchasing programs and networking opportunities, the NGCOA helps golf course owners and operators run more successful businesses. For more information or to join, visit ngcoa.org or call 800-933-4262.

PGA Show Education Session to share how Erin Hills and Hazeltine National use the latest technology to increase revenue and decrease round times; Thursday, January 23 at 9:45 a.m. in Room W230D; No prior reservation required. Attendees earn PDR credits

Kennesaw, Ga. (Jan. 9, 2025). In the year 2025, the most powerful toolkit any course manager, golf pro or director of operations, can have is data and systems. Together they unlock opportunities, improve the player experience, maximize staff efficiency, and increase revenue. Leading the way in on-course operations and golf cart GPS technology is Tagmarshal.

Among the 600+ clubs currently using Tagmarshal’s system to collect and analyze data are two U.S. Open venues, Hazeltine National, a private club in Minnesota, and Erin Hills, a public facility in Wisconsin, which will host the U.S. Women’s Open this spring. Experts from both will detail how technology and data have enhanced their operations, sharing lessons learned at an insightful education session during the upcoming PGA Show on Thursday, January 23, at 9:45 a.m. in Room W230D of the Orange County Convention Center.

The education session—titled “Lessons From Major Championship Hosts Hazeltine and Erin Hills: How Optimization Tech and Data are Reshaping On-Course Operations and How Your Facility Can Benefit Too!”—will showcase Kyle Brandt, PGA, Head Golf Professional at Hazeltine National, and Professor Kris Schoonover, Director of Operations at Erin Hills. Their experiences with data, optimization technology, and Tagmarshal specifically, will be of interest to managers at clubs large and small, public or private:

• Erin Hills increased greens revenue by $700,000 a season with Tagmarshal.
• At Hazeltine National, Tagmarshal is used to effectively manage pace and flow of play, inform round discussions and member compliance, and assist in optimizing course set-up.

Said Brandt, “With Tagmarshal’s Track Map, it’s point-blank in front of them, making it so much easier to have those (pace) discussions.”

“We’re proud to share lessons from two of our valued partners, Hazeltine and Erin Hills, in what will be a standout education session at the 2025 PGA Show,” said Bodo Sieber, Tagmarshal CEO. “For operators looking to drive innovation, automation, and ultimately performance, this session will be invaluable.”

Golf managers and PGA professionals will earn PDR credits while learning more about:

• How to optimize pace and flow of play using golf cart GPS system data insights.
• The value of automation and its huge impact on on-course efficiency, saving valuable time and costs.
• How to harness artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to drive the economic engine of any course, resulting in substantial revenue gains.

Throughout the PGA Show, Tagmarshal will be at Booth 3123. Course managers and others can view live course demos, engage with the latest golf cart GPS devices and technology, and calculate ROI based on their specific course information.

Tagmarshal partners with more than 600 private, daily fee, resort courses—including 40 of the top 100 courses in the U.S.—as well as management companies, while integrating with the most popular and innovative technology.

Read the full article here: The First Call

Tagmarshal’s expert webinar series presents a fantastic opportunity for operators to learn from leading courses that have found innovative ways to overcome challenges and optimize their operations.

Our more than 700 course partners range from exclusive, high-end private clubs to $50 daily fee courses. What connects them is the desire to use data and technology to help provide an enhanced player experience.

Below are 5 examples from this year’s webinars, showcasing some of the creative ways Tagmarshal’s system is used to transform how a course operates.

With Baltusrol’s Upper Course closed for the 2024 season, the Lower Course saw a significant spike in play volume, yet still managed an average round time of 3h57m during the peak period between June and October.

This was done without the use of on-course marshals or player assistants. Instead, Baltusrol’s golf staff have set up Tagmarshal’s system to send text-based alerts to their mobile phones when a group hits a pre-defined Slow Play threshold.

Whoever has the capacity then addresses the problem, going straight to the group that is out of position to offer assistance in getting them back on pace.

This approach ensures smoother course flow and saves labor hours that the golf professionals can redirect towards lessons, interactions with members, managing other staff and completing administrative work.

With a round of golf at Arizona’s renowned Gold Canyon Golf Resort taking around 4h15m, the course has a captive, high-income audience that is of interest to advertisers. 

To tap into this and generate revenue, Gold Canyon serves advertising on its 2Way golf cart GPS screens at strategic locations on the course, which are triggered via GPS.

This helps offset the cost of the system, meaning that all of the pace management and efficiency wins the 2Way screens offer are essentially heavily discounted.

At courses where operators may not have enough time or resources to sell their own advertising, Tagmarshal Media, a specialist division focused on media sales management, will assist.

Courses can choose from a fully managed, jointly managed or self-managed revenue model, depending on how much help they need to sell their ad inventory.

Washington-based Premier Golf, which falls under the Troon Golf umbrella, utilizes Tagmarshal’s multi-course operator (MCO) reporting to gain oversight across all of its facilities.

The innovative, data-driven and consolidated reporting gives Premier Golf a high-level view across more than 10 facilities, collecting key data insights and metrics.

These include:

• A monthly single overview of rounds tracked, round times, the percentage of rounds on pace and the number of player assistant notes entered into the system.
• System engagement tracking of user interactions to ensure each course under Premier Golf’s umbrella is fully utilizing Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS systems.
• A monthly tracking dashboard, either by course or on a group level, which highlights key performance indicators.

Using the data gathered, Premier Golf can track the impact of added tee sheet capacity on player experience, show the effect of team engagement across facilities and create a basis to charge premium rates.

Foothills Golf Course, a daily fee course in Colorado that deals with a high play volume, uses Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS data to identify periods of the day, and days of the week, where the average round time is consistently quicker.

While the course’s default goal time is 4h20m, earlier tee times often come in well below that. Foothills GC has now set variable goal times for different periods of the day.

During the ‘early wave,’ defined as between 6AM and 8AM, the goal time has dropped to 4 hours. For the ‘2nd early wave’ between 8AM and 9AM, the goal time is set to 4h10m. 

With these quicker goal times, gap intervals during these periods can be reduced, creating additional tee sheet capacity and an immediate bottom-line boost.

Cascade Hills, a premier private club in Western Michigan, benefits greatly from built-out member profiles with complete round and pace histories.

This data allows for more effective tee sheet management and oversight, as staff can quickly pull up a member’s profile and see the total number of rounds they have played, broken down into on pace, delayed, delayer (behind pace and other groups were impacted) and slow (behind pace but other groups were not impacted).

When they see a member about to tee off with a history of falling out of position early on, they can ensure they dedicate extra attention to offering support to the group in question. Should the problem with a member’s pace continue, the club has steps in place to escalate the matter, relying on the data gathered to illustrate why further action is necessary.

Using proactive pace management techniques, with a clear idea of which members require additional support, Cascade Hills reduced average round times this season to 3h47m, 18 minutes below the goal time.

Tagmarshal’s industry-leading analytics and reporting enable operators to make decisions with a deeper understanding of their course’s pace, capacity and other custom metrics.

Managing pace and flow effectively has a positive impact on the player experience and drives the economic engine of the course, empowering operators to increase their capacity and revenue

Ultimately, as our webinar guests have shown, Tagmarshal’s system can be used effectively across all course types, leading to an optimized operation.

Article by Steve Pike, Spike on Golf and Travel, December 2024

Bodo Sieber readily admits he’s not a golfer, but the former rugby player turned tech entrepreneur is changing the way golf courses and golf management companies deal with “real time’’ operational oversights and reporting. Through his Tagmarshal company, Sieber is taking “real time’’ data-driven insights and on-course optimization to the next levels.

Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS technology – first introduced at Erin Hills in 2015 – has collected over 10 billion data points from over 75 million tracked rounds of golf and has relationships with more than 600 partners. Those on-course partners include some of golf’s more celebrated courses, including Pinehurst No. 2 and 4, Pebble Beach Golf Links and Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. 

All told, more than 40 of the top U.S. Courses use Tagmarshal technology to track players (and equipment) from the first tee to the 18th green.

“By tracking the players from the first tee, you can get players off quicker… maybe eight minutes instead of 10-minute tee times. That increases profit,’’ Sieber said.

How did it all begin?

“I was looking for a new challenge,’’ said Sieber, Tagmarshal’s CEO. “Two of my friends – who are both passionate golfers – said that one of golf’s biggest problems today is slow play. So, we analyzed the market and began building solutions.’’

Tagmarshal’s software and resulting data, gathered using golf cart GPS tracking, Sieber said, each give golf operators the tools to manage operations effectively, resulting in enhanced player experiences, increased efficiency, cost savings, and additional revenue.

“Better decision-making through data. You’re no longer flying blind.’’

Those pieces of data and solutions each are key components to what Sieber calls his “Technology Toolbox.’’

“Number One, analyze everything that moves on course,’’ Sieber said. “Line of sight (one of Sieber’s favorite phrases) creates better decision making. Everything on the live map is color-coded, so we know where on the course each group is. Are they playing slow? Are they getting better or worse? Each of those things is dynamically calculated to help make better decisions.

“Number Two is accumulating data traffic patterns. You (an operator) can see where there is a bottleneck and where people are slowing down because of those traffic issues.’’

This past Spring, the company, whose U.S. headquarters is Kennesaw, Ga., launched its first version of software to be powered by AI (artificial intelligence), building on the previous machine-learning-based release. Real-life data from more than 75 million rounds of golf was gathered from many current Tagmarshal partners to create the new version. The updated golf cart GPS software was put through its paces in real-world field testing at Bandon Dunes, Erin Hills, the Country Club at Castle Pines, Pinehurst, Kiawah and other public, private, and resort courses.

This helped to ensure that this latest release continues to meet the company’s fundamental goals of providing intuitive tools to help course operators enhance the player experience, improve efficiency through automation, and generate additional revenue.

“The golf course is the economic engine that drives everything on the property,’’ Sieber said. “Make the data work for you. If you do what the data tells you to do, you’ll find that golfers will have enhanced player experiences, as well as more time for food and beverages and more time in the pro shop. There are endless opportunities for on-course optimization if you really follow the data.’’

Read the full article here: Spike on Golf and Travel